Antoaneta Kostadinova (Boneva) is a top international Bulgarian shooter with 15 World Cup medals in 10 and 25m pistol under her belt and with an unconventional style: right handed, left dominant eye, closes the right eye every shot. She’s already been in two Olympic Games and is working on her dream of becoming an Olympic champion.
You can find her on Instagram.
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How and when did you start shooting?
I started training in 2004. My father, who was also a shooter, took me to the shooting range.
What made you want to train and compete more seriously? What was your progression like?
The desire to achieve my dream is the driving force in my sports career: becoming an Olympic champion.
What are you most proud of in your shooting?
What I am most proud of in my shooting is that I get along great with my coach Hristo Hristov and together we can achieve everything!
What advice has had the biggest positive impact in your shooting? Who gave it?
What does not depend on you and you can not change it, do not think about it, but adjust to it! Of course, this advice is from my coach.
What did you spend a lot of effort on and later discovered it wasn’t so important?
In fact, when I do something, I invest one hundred percent and I always want to achieve my goals, no matter how much effort it costs me.
How do you train and how often? What does a typical training day look like?
I train every day without the weekend and in recent months I train mostly alone, because of the situation with the coronavirus. Each workout begins with warm-up exercises, followed by dry firing for about an hour and then shooting.
How do you stay motivated in training and competition?
At the moment my motivation is not very high considering that we have been without competitions for half a year and it is not known when there will be competitions at all.
What do you do before a match or training to get into the appropriate mind space?
I don’t have something specific that I do before a competition, I’m just trying to banish negative thoughts and focus on my sequence.
How do you manage nervousness through a competition? Can you give an example of a technique you use when things are not going well?
I also want an answer to this question 😁
What would you recommend pistol shooters to focus on improving? Can you share one exercise or routine for this? How do you think they should go about it?
I would recommend pistol shooters to work harder for stability, and for this purpose there are very good schemes that can follow, for example my favorite scheme is a 20” hold followed by 20” rest, at least 10 minutes to start with.
Which tool or equipment can’t you live without?
I love all my shooting accessories and I feel safe when everything is in place.
What question would you have liked me to ask and what’s your answer to it?
My question would be “What would you do if you weren’t a shooter?” and the answer is “I would become a singer, I adore traditional Bulgarian music and as a child I wanted to become a folk singer”.
Who would you recommend is interviewed next?
I would like the next interviewee to be Ivana Maksimovic.